Various types of stents and stent deployment devices are known in the art. In particular, stents of the self-expanding and balloon expandable varieties and devices for deploying such stents are used to repair blood vessels, arteries, fluid passages, airways, gastrointestinal tracts, and other bodily lumens.
In some instances, it is desirable to use a stent that is relatively long, for example 100 mm in length. Relatively long stents can be more difficult to deploy than their shorter counterparts. Additionally, delivery devices requiring two hands to operate can be cumbersome. Consequently, there remains a need for a stent delivery device that is capable of effectively delivering relatively long stents to body lumens. There further remains a need for such a delivery device that can be operated with a single hand.
The art referred to and/or described above is not intended to constitute an admission that any patent, publication or other information referred to herein is “prior art” with respect to this invention. In addition, this section should not be construed to mean that a search has been made or that no other pertinent information as defined in 37 C.F.R. § 1.56(a) exists.
All US patents and applications and all other published documents mentioned anywhere in this application are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
Without limiting the scope of the invention a brief summary of some of the claimed embodiments of the invention is set forth below. Additional details of the summarized embodiments of the invention and/or additional embodiments of the invention may be found in the Detailed Description of the Invention below.